The power of Finance Business Partnering enables Finance to step outside of their traditional Performance Management roles (setting budgets and reviewing actuals) in order to contribute to real value creation initiatives.
Simply put, spending more time working together is mutually beneficial for both Finance and the business.
But what is the best way to structure that relationship? Should Finance operate as an advisor, a consultant or perhaps even an investor?
Our business environment is changing dramatically. Smart devices, smart offices, autonomous vehicles are boosting and creating avalanches of data every day. Big data will benefit a business. It enables business with greater insights and new opportunities, but only if you are able to manage it well.
By Joao Almeida, CFO at the Hubs, and Rich Feldman, Head of Marketing at Finario
CEOs that are more strategically oriented and less numbers-oriented tend to want to partner with a CFO who has a strong command of the numbers. When that's not the case, and we have CEOs or leadership teams that are focused on their matrix, it can be challenging for the finance organisation. In the new article, Joao Almeida and Rich Feldman discuss some of the current challenges facing leaders in finance, and the role of capital planning in a time of increased uncertainty.
FP&A Transformation has been taking place for some time, with teams moving from the Traditional FP&A Model to the extended FP&A (xP&A) Model. This represents a move from scheduled to on-demand planning, from one scenario to multiple scenarios and from finance to entire company planning.
Similar to a conductor of an orchestra, the finance team looks at all different functions, allowing some to grow faster at times but never taking eyes off other functions so that every function in the company always performs as one to achieve the best results possible.
FP&A professionals need to be motivated and motivate others to trust and to make strategic decisions based on insights from the team. If trust is not yet established between you and your business partner, find the trigger that will make them believe in your analysis and the numbers behind them.
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